ISSUE DATE: 5 April 2024
Following news of Electric Vehicle (EV) sales falling further to a point where 84.8% of new car sales in March had a petrol or diesel engine it is clear the public do not want their choices taken away.
The ABD today calls for the ban on petrol and diesel to be properly and permanently scrapped (1) and an end to throwing public money at subsidies for EV purchases and use (2).
ABD Chairman Bob Bull said: “The public must not have their right to choose removed and public money must no longer be thrown at subsidising new EV sales and usage. The tax system has for years given huge advantages to persuade fleets and business users to adopt EVs. This is not ‘free money’, it is paid for by the hard working and struggling people of this country. Enough is enough”.
(1). Many are under the misapprehension that Rishi Sunak pushed back the petrol/diesel ban to 2035. These were ‘weasel words’ as the mandates for huge percentages of sales to be fully electric by 2030 remain. Labour have promised to reinstate the ban.
(2). The SMMT have called for VAT on new EV sales to be halved and VED increases for EVs scrapped. There are already huge tax incentives to buy and use EVs.
Fully agree with the statements made by the ABD regarding the unjust ban on Petrol and diesel vehicles in 2035
And would like to add “that’s it about time the Government stopped treating the motorists as cash cows”.